Ponder(verb) to weigh in the mind; to view with deliberation; to examine carefully; to consider attentively

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Europa Or Bust

On February 2, 2015 NASA administrator Charles Bolden spoke of a selection process for projects accompanying a mission to Europa. The same day, a White House announcement revealed an additional half billion in direct funding for the space agency – with 30 million destined to “formulate” plans for Europa Clipper, a mission to Jupiter’s iconic moon, Europa.

Europa captured scientific imagination in 1979 – images from Voyager raised eyebrows over liquid water, perhaps even lifeforms, beneath Europa’s frozen exterior. Science speculates this crust to be 100 kilometers thick – many believe a hidden ocean exists, kept liquid by constant push and pull of Jupiter’s impressive gravity. Similar to extreme forms of life found in the deepest corners of our oceans – lifeforms thriving on energy from hydrothermal vents.

A composite of Europa made from images from the Galileo spacecraft, which orbited in the Jovian system for eight years, beginning in 1995. Areas that appear blue or white contain relatively pure water ice. Image via NASA/JPL

Good point. Similarly, we also assume our own timescales. Nice video of life at the sea bottom that you can’t normally see move: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HG17TsgV_qI
We should allow for living rocks that take 1000 years to breathe in and use tectonic pressure as their energy source. Who knows about the intelligence in their seams? What’s more – who needs water?

Crumbs … if I’d known it was that easy to make a girl happy, I would have started collecting koi back when I was 17!
Think of all the problems I would have solved!

For the record, our largest fish, a gold coloured koi, we call Oberon.
Another, a shusui, is called Io.
This year we had a good crop of babies born. They too will get named once they have filled out a bit and taken on their adult colouring.